


Other People

by tablelamp



Category: Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Thoughts about Life, Thoughts about people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 06:35:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20774144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tablelamp/pseuds/tablelamp
Summary: Eglantine Price doesn't like Other People.





	Other People

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sinking Beatrice (Beatrice_Sank)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beatrice_Sank/gifts).

Eglantine Price doesn't like Other People.

The trouble with Other People is that they have such strong opinions about what she should be doing, and those opinions never match what she is doing. Other People tell her she should have a man in her life. Other People tell her it's peculiar to spend most of her time alone. Other People assume that she's hiding something by not sharing every detail of her day with them, and thus Other People make it their business to worm their way into her secrets as far as they can get (which, given her preferences, is not very far). Other People spend far too much time peering into her windows, reading the addresses on her mail, and generally trying to make themselves feel more comfortable about a life they don't understand, a life that isn't theirs to begin with. On the whole, Eglantine Price can do without Other People entirely, which is why she initially makes the mistake of thinking the Rawlins children will be Other People.

Of course, they don't get off to a promising start. Charlie's immediate attempts to blackmail her are simply more support for the idea that anyone who discovered her secrets would try to make her do what they wanted her to do rather than what she wanted. Eglantine had suspected that something along those lines might happen one day. That was why she'd kept her attempts to learn witchcraft well out of view, but it's much more difficult to keep something out of view from people who are living in your house. She prepares herself for the worst--for the children to spread the truth about what she's been up to, and for her life to shrink in on itself out of necessity.

But the children don't react how she expects. They seem satisfied with the travelling spell she casts on the bedknob, and interested in what she can do--apart from Charlie, who takes a long while to recover from being turned into a rabbit. (Eglantine thinks Charlie's reaction is entirely fair.) More than that, they genuinely seem to enjoy their travels with her--the trip to Portobello Road, the adventures undersea, and the visit to Naboombu. They don't force her to make her life smaller to fit their view of life; instead, they widen their view to include her and what she can do. She had never considered that such a thing might be possible.

So no. The Rawlins children are not Other People, and Eglantine is very grateful they're not. (She's not entirely sure about Emelius Browne, but she's willing to suspend judgment for now.) If they can find a place for her in their lives, she can find a place for them in hers.

Maybe there are other people who aren't Other People after all.


End file.
